You Saved Me
by thinking hurts my brain
Summary: WARNING SPOILERS FOR HALO 4 AHEAD! She isn't really gone. The Chief would never give up on her. Ever. And he would never, ever give up hope.


**I just finished playing through the campaign of Halo 4, and I am ****343%**** done. Get it? Like 343 Industries? Ha ha. So, I really wanted to write something that reunited the Chief and Cortana, because she can't really be gone, you know? Anyway, if you can, please review. ****I don't own Halo, or any of the characters.**

* * *

117...

You are the savior of mankind- and all that they have created...

Including_ her..._

You were supposed to save the day, John. Just like you always do...

You were supposed to save her_..._

_Cortana..._

Save her...

"_Don't make a girl a promise... If you know you can't keep it._"

* * *

The Master Chief opened his eyes, slightly disoriented, ears still ringing from his vivid dream. He squinted against the sudden bright light. The visor of his helmet quickly dimmed to compensate, letting his eyes adjust to the blinding light slowly.

He took a deep breath, the cold air of the cryo tube venting through into his lungs.

In his head, he ran quick diagnostics:

Limb movement: Check. Neck and head movement: Check. Lungs: Check.

He ran through a helmet check too, making sure that his armor wasn't caked in too much ice, weapons system was still in sync, and checked for the A.I. chip that nested snugly in the back of his helmet.

He groped around at the back of his head, but there was no sign of the tell tale ridge that the chip had. Then, he remembered.

Cortana was gone.

He hadn't saved her.

Guilt nearly crushed him, making it hard to breathe. But then, he remembered what he was here for. He shook his head slightly, pushing his own emotions from his mind in able to focus on the task at hand.

He had been so _close._

Yet so far.

He looked up and pulled the manual release lever for the cryo tube door. It slid open with a hiss, letting the chilly air escape.

The Chief nearly jumped out of the cryo tube, startling the workers typing at the nearby consoles.

"Chief, slow down. We need to check to make sure all your systems are still intact. The time in cryo might have damaged-"

"Later," he said, interrupting the technitian. The man nodded, intimidated by the spartan in front of him. Standing over seven feet tall, he towered over the tallest of the workers. He nodded at them, heading for the door. He grabbed an assault rifle and magnum on the way out.

He wasn't one to stay and chat.

* * *

The Chief walked through the halls, nodding at the soldiers that saluted to him. Even though inside his head was racing, he had to at least appear in control. If he didn't... then he wouldn't be a spartan.

Spartans put their emotions aside. Spartans were soldiers, created to follow orders. Spartans were made to lead.

He reached a door, and he pressed the combination for the keypad.

The door slid open, grinding just a bit against the frame.

"Hello, John," she greeted him. Her voice calmed him down, the same voice that Cortana had used. It lulled him into a sense of security. He was so close.

"Doctor Halsey," he said, suppressing the urge to salute. She smiled at him, barely. She was grey and wrinkled, liver spots covering her face and hands. She was old.

It struck The Chief that Halsey wouldn't be around forever. She would die. Whether it be sickness or old age or battle that took her, she wouldn't live forever. This concept was hard for him to comprehend- she had always been there, the one constant in the ever-changing battle for survival.

It made him... sad, or at lease the spartan equivalent of it.

"I assume you're well?" she asked.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Please, John. Relax and come in." He frowned and did as she said. His armor thudded as he walked up the stairs into the large circle in the middle of the room. The floor glowed ice blue beneath him, and the consoles surrounding him were lit up with the same hue.

"I assume you're here for her?" Halsey asked.

"Yes."

"You do know she won't be exactly like her predescessor?"

"Yes."

"Yes, yes, yes. Is that all you know how to say? I thought I taught you more than that."

The Chief didn't respond, instead looking around the room, admiring the glowing consoles and motes of blue light drifting over their heads.

"Take off your helmet please, John." His head snapped down, and he looked at her with disbelief, although she couldn't see through his visor. He didn't question her though, he trusted her, no matter what she had put him through.

He raised his hands to his head, and mentally unlocked the seals holding his neck armor to his helmet. There was a slight hiss of air as the pressure released, and he raised his helmet over his head.

Halsey held her hands out for his helmet, and he handed it to her one-handed. She took it in both of hers, almost dropping it under the weight. Once she had a firm grip on it, she gently placed it on one of the consoles.

She carefully attatched several hoses and sensors, then pressed a button on one of the computers. The screen lit up and displayed hundreds of readings.

The Master Chief watched carefully, feeling vulnerable without his most important piece of armor. Halsey turned to him after tweaking some of the technology attatched to his helmet.

"Come here, John, and kneel down please." The spartan did as she said, taking a meter-long step forward, now right in front of the doctor. He dropped onto one knee, now a little lower than eye-level with Halsey.

She breathed deeply and picked something up from her desk. "I'm going to place this on your head, John, and it's going to tap into your neural chip. The chip used to be connected to Cortana, and it pertains all her memories, thoughts, and feelings. She will be almost an exact duplicate, but smarter."

"How long will she last?" The Chief asked, his voice sounding odd without it echoing off the inside of his helmet.

"Because her memories are taken from the chip in your head, she'll die when you do, and never before that."

"Can I take her out then?"

"There will not be a chip, you only need to touch a console to place her there, or touch her to get her back. You cannot travel more than a few kilometers away from a console that she is in, or she will teleport back into your neural chip. Or, if you wish, she can be teleported back to you just by summoning her." The Chief nodded in understanding.

"This will hurt," she said, placing a headset over his ears. "Three... two... one." Pain shot through The Chief's head, almost knocking him over. He gripped a steel bar attatched to a nearby console, and the metal groaned under his intense hold.

"Twenty percent," Halsey reported. "Just a few more seconds." The doctor resisted shutting down the headset, listening to her spartan's barely audible curses due to the pain, but she did nothing. This wasn't the worst thing she had put him through. "Sixty percent," she whispered, trying to focus on anything but John's pain. "Seventy-five percent," she said. John yelled, and she sighed, biting her lip. "Eighty... Ninety... One-hundered percent." The headset automatically powered down, leaving The spartan to catch his breath.

"Wasn't so bad," he said, standing up. Halsey smiled.

"I'm just downloading the finishing touches from your helmet recorder- some small additions to her personality and customization, things like that," Halsey announced as The Chief took off the headset and awkwardly set it down on one of the consoles.

Halsey glanced up at him, and just for a moment, she could see all the built-up anticipation, worry, and guilt in his eyes. He met her gaze, and they hardened again. She swallowed and looked back down, continuing to do some last minute checks for malfunctions.

"You may put your helmet back on, John," she said. As soon as she said it, the spartan snapped his hand out, grabbed his helmet, and jammed it back on his head. Halsey rolled her eyes and tapped the keys on the holo-keyboard.

_Click._

It was done. Halsey pressed a button, and microscopic light squares of blue-purple data slowly descending fromt the ceiling to revolve around the large glowing circle in the middle of the room. They started to converge around the glowing center, and they one-by-one settled into place, forming the shape of a woman with short purple hair and glowing blue-purple skin tatooed with purple stripes and lines, letting lights of data run from her toes to her head and back.

The A.I. was curled on the glowing surface of the console, she acted like she was catching her breath, then shifted so she was on her knees, head still bent.

The Chief surged forward, nearly knocking Doctor Halsey over in his haste. Halsey noted how urgently he moved, like he would die if he didn't get to her. She put it to the back of her mind for further contemplation. Was it possible that her spartan had fallen in love? No. Spartans don't know how to love. They wouldn't even be able to fathom the concept.

The Chief hunched over, only several feet away from the glowing figure. She was the size of a human, the large platform allowing her to be so. She raised her head and looked up, meeting his eyes.

Her eyes were a light purple, deeply contrasting with her deep purple pupils and the rims around the colored irises. She blinked, disbelieving.

"Chief?"

Her voice was melodic, a version of Halsey's, but with many layers and tones, whispers and shouts all combined to make one beautiful harmony.

"Wha- How...?" she trailed off.

"Cortana." He held out a hand, and she reached out. As her hand met his, he felt a cool tingling in his hand. His hand glowed where she touched him, and she smiled slightly at him.

Halsey suddenly had the feeling that she was intruding, and walked down the stairs around the large circular platform in the middle of the room. As she reached the door, she looked back.

The Chief pulled Cortana up from her kneeling position, and Halsey smiled at them. "Kids," she muttered, then exited. Maybe it was possible for spartans to love.

Only time would tell.

All thoughts exited The Chief's mind when Cortana squeezed his hand. Then, she disintegrated into a million dots of light. He panicked, looking around the room.

"Cortana!" he said.

"Calm down, I'm right here," she said, her cool voice filling his head. Her face appeared on his visor, and she grinned. "Ready to go, Spartan?" she asked him, imitating several officers that refused to ever call him by his rank.

He nodded, even though there was no one there, and walked towards the door he had come from. Just as he was passing through the threshold, sparks erupted from the nearby wiring, and the entire ship shook and rumbled.

"Don't we ever get a moment's peace?" he asked.

"If we had peace, there would be no reason for us to be here," she answered.

"True." He heard her sigh.

"You really haven't changed at all, have you? Still saying mostly one-worded sentences."

The Chief smirked and didn't reply.

"Well, we're back in business!" Cortana said.

The door that he had been sprinting towards exploded, a dark figure looming through the smoky haze. He raised his gun.

"You bet."

* * *

**I won't be continuing this, just saying. I suck at writing storylines and updating, so I'm just going to keep it as a one-shot. What did you guys think of Halo 4? What was your favorite part? Answer if you wish in a review!**


End file.
